Question about donating blood

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

Needless to say, I don't know anything about it

Is someone who habitually uses marijuana allowed to regularly donate? As in, daily use?

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Given that people who smoke tobacco and drink alcohol can donate, I don't see why not. The blood is checked for some diseases, but not removable toxins.

From way back when I did donate, I seem to recall questions asking about drug use, but that was more about needle use as you can't donate if you inject drugs and therefore could have a contaminated needle and have a disease from that.

[HotI]

from http://www.donateblood.com.au/who-can-give/faq#faq_271

Drug use (recreational) - Can I still donate blood even if I have taken recreational drugs?


This will depend on what drug was taken and how and when it was taken. If you have ever used intravenous (IV) drugs not prescribed by a registered medical practitioner, even once, you will not be eligible to donate. The Blood Service values the privacy of donors. All interviews are conducted in private and donor confidentiality is always maintained.

Please call 13 14 95 for further information.

[LimeSlice]

Yes, they can.

[nothing2lose]

from http://www.donateblood.com.au/who-can-give/faq#faq_271

The prohibition on intravenous drug use has nothing to do with the drugs themselves but the risks of blood borne viruses like Hep C and HIV.

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

So, smoking it is okay. I'm guessing the blood gets a bit processed after it's taken then, it's not straight from the person to the bag to the recipient? Interesting.

Thanks for that link HotI, it didn't occur to me to look it up

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

It is screened for nasty blood-bourne infections (such as HIV and hepatitis), and usually separated into red blood, platelets and plasma. All of these are used differently. For example, plasma is often used when a lot of blood has been lost, but can also be used to make vaccinations and eye drops (I had a job turning a bag of blood into eye drops many years ago: easy to do and the patient received their own plasma to put in their eyes to help with healing - kinda like squirting breast milk into the eyes, in a way).

It can go straight to a recepient, but that's really quite rare.

[SammyRo]

Like n2l said, it's more to do with the risk of blood borne diseases that can be passed by IV drug use. I don't know how marijuana works in the blood stream, but I'm guessing it's something like alcohol, so it is processed out of the blood in the same way (I would imagine).
The blood is processed into separate parts like TFB said, but it's not strained as such to get rid of any nasties that are in there. So I suppose if the marijuana was still in the blood at the time of donating, then some might remain in the blood that a patient received. I can ask my dad next time I see him, hes a transfusion scientist at the blood service.